Hand wringers

I am on the edge of Charley (10 mi away or so) and we are really lucky but
there are still some folks with some damage. It amazes me how many of them are
still sitting around wringing their hands and not even trying to do anything to
protect and fix their stuff. It makes me wonder how much of these insurance
claims are just because people won't put up some plastic and move their crap
out of the rain. The homeowners really should be lining up contractors before
they all get booked. Screw waitingh for the insurance guy. They are just going
to pay what they are going to pay and if you mitigate the damage you have a
better chance of getting a decent percentage covered.

I live in Hampton Roads, VA, and my ex-BF was directly affected by Hurricane
Isabel--he had 3 large trees fall on his roof, and the next evening half his
kitchen ceiling collapsed because of damage to the trusses above, coupled
with the water damage from all the rain. He's only *now* getting it
repaired. Much of the delay is due to his procrastination, but I can say
that the contractors were very booked up very quickly after the storm, and
there was a lot of price gouging as far as getting trees removed from
houses. He did get the trees removed, but that took about 3 weeks or so.
Everyone in his neighborhood was pitching in and helping everyone else to
get tarps up on roofs, and in removing the branches/debris that could be
safely removed. My friend *did* get all that done, he was simply very slow
about getting the permanent repairs done, Also, a number of the contractors
he called for estimates never got back to him, or *promised* to come over to
do one, but never did.
I think the moral of the story is that you have to be prepared to *help
yourself* in the immediate aftermath, and get help from your neighbors. I
can tell you that *no one* in his neighborhood stood around wringing their
hands--and this is a middle class neighborhood that generally has older baby
boomers and retirees in it.
Jean in VA

Greg you should have your toung in the Hand Wringer. Getting bids from
contractors after this will be extremely hard as most dont need anymore
work and are to busy to care.
People are in shock and dont have the material or ladders , tools
,experiance to do allot of this.

Maybe that is true now but if you got going Saturday you would be at the top of
the list. I had a 40 ton crane in my yard Sunday morning pulling the tree off
my roof then we went down the street and pulled one off my neighbor's roof. The
guy was sitting there waiting for a call. The same was true of the roofer my
neighbor used to patch up the hole. When they finally did get the insurance
company to respond they were thriiled that we stopped the bleeding!
It still rains about every day here in the summer and if you stand around doing
nothing your damage continues to pile up.

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